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Artwork (Digital) / General Furry Art
Species Tiger
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THis is an avitar I did for my daughter. She is 11 and loves her Bakugan. I used to draw her as a wolf panther hybrid, but she has grown up enough to know what she feels :)
This was drawn with the Bamboo tablet. so please, any and all posative crits are welcome. On a side note this has taken me about 2 weeks to do thanls to RL interventions
This was drawn with the Bamboo tablet. so please, any and all posative crits are welcome. On a side note this has taken me about 2 weeks to do thanls to RL interventions
Category Artwork (Digital) / General Furry Art
Species Tiger
Size 600 x 600px
File Size 102.5 kB
Warnig, WALL O' TEXT. >^___^< I hope some of this, at least, will be useful.
Depending on what program you're using (I have Photoshop CS4), the blur, dodge and burn tools are your friends for doing awesome shading and highlights without having to swap colours in your palette to get certain effects.
Dodge removes colour, or lightens the colour that's there, so highlights can be more convincing, since they're shaded only a little lighter than the base colour. Try using a different opacity, too- you can change how "strong" any effect or brush is by changing how "solid" a stroke looks.
Blur is one of those tools I don't think I could do without- think of it as one of those smudge sticks made of paper- you can soften any line or blur it out completely to add a hit of darker shade before re-inking. In Photoshop, you can also change blur to do a number of other things, like actually darken your finer lines in specific spots to give then more "weight" on the shadowed side.
Burn is good for softer shading- I set mine to a very low "exposure" so I can easily colour over it or remove it if I mess up. Burn has three "settings"- highlights (it darkens just the lighter colours ), midtones (darkens the medium shades) and shadows (really hits those with a stick). Again, you can change the intensity of the burn any time while you're using it.
Another feature is the menu that has options on how you can change how your colours are applied in terms of "shading" again. Explore these (I'm still learning to use them myself). One of my favourites, other than the "normal" setting, which just lays down the colour you've chosen at whatever opacity you've set it for, is "overlay". This one lays down the colours, but progressively lightens them the more you stroke on that spot. It's another cool way to get neat highlights. It also will highlight anything you paint it over, so sweet shading and highlighting can be done in large spots so you don't have to be super finicky.
Here's the critique: First, I'm gonna say keep on with the art- scribble, sketch, go for realism or not, look through heroic comics or manga, anything that inspires you is useful. Beating yourself up over your perceived "lacks" won't help you improve, not only because you'll be stuck looking at something you've come to believe isn't "good enough", but because you're blinding yourself to the parts that are working for you. Fist, you have to ask yourself, who are you really trying to impress? Why do you draw at all? Is it for fun? Fame? Attention? Money? To get better at a skill you admire? When we know our motivations for why we do something, we might understand better how to get where we want to go with it.
Now, on to your piece.
Pose: you've got good shaping and a simple portrait style to introduce your character. This works. But she's "leaning" oddly, and looks a little "tense" or uncomfortable, or like she's about to do something, and you caught her just before she started the movement. This makes the picture kind of "hang"- and makes me expect her to be doing something... and it never happens. This "tension" is mostly what hurts this piece, in my opinion. Now, tension can really work if you're using it for a certain purpose, like a character swinging a sword, and you paint it where it's at the the point in it's swing just before it hits it's target. THAT makes for good tension- the viewer is expecting mayhem to follow. "Loosen" up an image like this by having her gesturing or fiddling with her hair or simply lean her back against the wall behind her. Give her body "flexible mass" instead of the wooden block she appears to be now.
How to do that: watch how people or animals move. We aren't stiff, unless it's chilly and our arthritis is acting up- animals move fluidly. They slump, sprawl, they're relaxed. You already know where the bones are, and they give you your base to work from. But, it's the muscles that make all the action, so you need to know where those muscles are and what they do when they move. Anatomy books are good for this- get the ones meant for artists, not the medical ones. Draw from life, too- yourself in the mirror, your friends, your Lady and kidling. Anyone who'll sit for you in a variety of poses will add to your art-fu. If it helps, and you have a camera, go out and take photos of random people from a bit of a distance. You're not trying to get perfectly posed pix or even see their faces- this is just for seeing how bodies look in the course of movement.
In short, observe the world you're in, even if you're going to turn them into anthro critters later.
Colours and lighting: try to stay away from using heavy grays to shade whites (or anything, really, unless it's a night-scene, then blue-grays work great there). Like in real media, greys tend to muddy your piece and make colours less "pure". I suggest a pale beige or blue, even a pale lavender for shading down whites, depending on the "lighting" and blur them in so they soften all the curves. You can also use the burn tool set on highlights, but use a very low "exposure" maybe %15 to start to see how it affects the colours you've used. If gray is the only thing that will work, go to a more "natural" gray by picking which base colour you're making your gray from, like the yellow band. Each colour swatch will shade from white, through grays into the true colour, then into black. So try for a soft grayish yellow-white for a more natural gray. I notice a lot of artists lay down their darkest shades first, then paint over with the highlights and blur them in to get a nice effect of depth and dimensionality. That technique works, too, and you can decide on the fly where your lighting is coming from as you paint, if you want. Or, decide from the start where you want the light to be coming from. Always know your light-source, it's direction and it's intensity. Bright, direct lighting will give you heavier, sharper shadows, while a cloudy day will give you softer, less-obvious shading. Also, take into account your type of light-source: a candle will tint your light with a gentle golden tone, while moonlight or old-style florescents blue and silver things down. The direction is important, too- especially when you're trying to get a more 3D look to your piece. Our faces aren't flat- noses and cheeks, even eye-lashes, will cast shadows when the light is behind them.
Proportions: Are pretty good- the eyes do look a tad odd, like someone else mentioned. Where they are is fine, just make the left one a tiny bit smaller- it wouldn't appear quite that different from the right in size, even due to perspective, but you have the right idea here. Her jaw and cheek on the left side seem "out" to me. Maybe move the bulge of her cheek toward the centre a bit to make it stick out less? As it is now, it makes her jaw look distorted, like it 's turned to her right in the image. If she were facing you head-on, for example, that cute little chin would be off-centre. The right ear would probably be a tiny fraction more to the right and down a touch- it's too close to centre right now. These are small fractions of movements, but it's always surprising how much a tiny increment can make or break an image.
Folds, fur and fun: You have the right idea for the folds in the fabric. But you have too many of them. Look at your own t-shirt- yes, it folds in the same places you have on hers- in your piece, just make fewer of 'em, make 'em a little broader and soften 'em. Sharp, hard folds like this make it look like she's wearing plastic or cellophane. I like the colours you've used on her eyes, the way you've shaded them is quite pretty and gives a more "alive" look to your kitty- I'd only suggest a "purer" tone- the ones you have are slightly gray. Right now, her fur is kind of "flat", but that could work, depending on the style you're using, and, since I'm not all that good with fur, I'll leave it at that. Fur and clouds are my personal artistic bane. *chuckles* Hair is dynamic- that means it moves, curls or hangs straight, but still bends to conform to whatever it's resting against. I'd suggest lighter, thinner lines when you colour, and lay them tightly next to each other in smooth waves and blur them slightly to give the effect of a fall of hair. Use the dodge tool to make highlights and then add in your line-art.
Line-art; too heavy or not heavy enough- I have this problem, too, and it drives me right round the twist. I'm still working this one out myself. I go in using the zoom tool to about %200 or even %300 expansion, then use the eraser tool to nip out the little bits that stick out from my lines to smooth them out a bit. I'll also use the blur tool to either soften them slightly (set to %20 or less, use several passes until you're satisfied), or darken the lines (which males them a bit thicker, as well as darker) on the unlighted sides of your character to give them "weight" and to suggest 3D shaping. Another technique I like to use is to lower the opacity over all of my line-art, so it becomes a soft enhancement to the colours underneath. This only works if you have the line-art on a layer of it's own.
And, lastly- LAYERS, LAYERS, LAYERS! *grins* And label each one so you don't get lost- nothing fancy, either, just "background", "colours", "sketch", "line-art" and "effects" work for me. Some artists put each separate element on it's own layer, too, and can have up to ten or more layers going at once.
These are all small changes, but they can have big effects on how your art is seen by people. So I hope you know that I not only like your art, but I'd love to see you happy with it. You're not a bad artist- you have something going, there, and you have an inner vision you want to show to people. We all need to improve in places, and when we don't have a lot of time to spare to practice, that progress can be slow- but we still progress, as long as we don't listen to the Little Bastard in the back of our brains who keeps telling us we suck- he's a liar, and only wants to make you miserable- ignore him. *hugs*
All that stuff said, this little kitty is adorable, and I hope you'll keep drawing her. If no one comments or offers useful critiques on a piece, please don't let that discourage you, OK? You're probably giving yourself more grief than you need, and if you don't pump out a drawing every day, so what? Real life takes precedence, after all. I suggest drawing from life- have someone pose for you, or draw an animal sitting in your yard. Use photographs, if you need your subject to sit still longer. >^__^< Most artists will tell you- even the ones we probably both "worship"- that they use references: photographs or film -even a well-done statue- some static image to get a good close eye on something like fur to see how they can paint it with light. That's what you're doing, you know- painting with light, and how cool it THAT?
I hope any of this useful to you!
Depending on what program you're using (I have Photoshop CS4), the blur, dodge and burn tools are your friends for doing awesome shading and highlights without having to swap colours in your palette to get certain effects.
Dodge removes colour, or lightens the colour that's there, so highlights can be more convincing, since they're shaded only a little lighter than the base colour. Try using a different opacity, too- you can change how "strong" any effect or brush is by changing how "solid" a stroke looks.
Blur is one of those tools I don't think I could do without- think of it as one of those smudge sticks made of paper- you can soften any line or blur it out completely to add a hit of darker shade before re-inking. In Photoshop, you can also change blur to do a number of other things, like actually darken your finer lines in specific spots to give then more "weight" on the shadowed side.
Burn is good for softer shading- I set mine to a very low "exposure" so I can easily colour over it or remove it if I mess up. Burn has three "settings"- highlights (it darkens just the lighter colours ), midtones (darkens the medium shades) and shadows (really hits those with a stick). Again, you can change the intensity of the burn any time while you're using it.
Another feature is the menu that has options on how you can change how your colours are applied in terms of "shading" again. Explore these (I'm still learning to use them myself). One of my favourites, other than the "normal" setting, which just lays down the colour you've chosen at whatever opacity you've set it for, is "overlay". This one lays down the colours, but progressively lightens them the more you stroke on that spot. It's another cool way to get neat highlights. It also will highlight anything you paint it over, so sweet shading and highlighting can be done in large spots so you don't have to be super finicky.
Here's the critique: First, I'm gonna say keep on with the art- scribble, sketch, go for realism or not, look through heroic comics or manga, anything that inspires you is useful. Beating yourself up over your perceived "lacks" won't help you improve, not only because you'll be stuck looking at something you've come to believe isn't "good enough", but because you're blinding yourself to the parts that are working for you. Fist, you have to ask yourself, who are you really trying to impress? Why do you draw at all? Is it for fun? Fame? Attention? Money? To get better at a skill you admire? When we know our motivations for why we do something, we might understand better how to get where we want to go with it.
Now, on to your piece.
Pose: you've got good shaping and a simple portrait style to introduce your character. This works. But she's "leaning" oddly, and looks a little "tense" or uncomfortable, or like she's about to do something, and you caught her just before she started the movement. This makes the picture kind of "hang"- and makes me expect her to be doing something... and it never happens. This "tension" is mostly what hurts this piece, in my opinion. Now, tension can really work if you're using it for a certain purpose, like a character swinging a sword, and you paint it where it's at the the point in it's swing just before it hits it's target. THAT makes for good tension- the viewer is expecting mayhem to follow. "Loosen" up an image like this by having her gesturing or fiddling with her hair or simply lean her back against the wall behind her. Give her body "flexible mass" instead of the wooden block she appears to be now.
How to do that: watch how people or animals move. We aren't stiff, unless it's chilly and our arthritis is acting up- animals move fluidly. They slump, sprawl, they're relaxed. You already know where the bones are, and they give you your base to work from. But, it's the muscles that make all the action, so you need to know where those muscles are and what they do when they move. Anatomy books are good for this- get the ones meant for artists, not the medical ones. Draw from life, too- yourself in the mirror, your friends, your Lady and kidling. Anyone who'll sit for you in a variety of poses will add to your art-fu. If it helps, and you have a camera, go out and take photos of random people from a bit of a distance. You're not trying to get perfectly posed pix or even see their faces- this is just for seeing how bodies look in the course of movement.
In short, observe the world you're in, even if you're going to turn them into anthro critters later.
Colours and lighting: try to stay away from using heavy grays to shade whites (or anything, really, unless it's a night-scene, then blue-grays work great there). Like in real media, greys tend to muddy your piece and make colours less "pure". I suggest a pale beige or blue, even a pale lavender for shading down whites, depending on the "lighting" and blur them in so they soften all the curves. You can also use the burn tool set on highlights, but use a very low "exposure" maybe %15 to start to see how it affects the colours you've used. If gray is the only thing that will work, go to a more "natural" gray by picking which base colour you're making your gray from, like the yellow band. Each colour swatch will shade from white, through grays into the true colour, then into black. So try for a soft grayish yellow-white for a more natural gray. I notice a lot of artists lay down their darkest shades first, then paint over with the highlights and blur them in to get a nice effect of depth and dimensionality. That technique works, too, and you can decide on the fly where your lighting is coming from as you paint, if you want. Or, decide from the start where you want the light to be coming from. Always know your light-source, it's direction and it's intensity. Bright, direct lighting will give you heavier, sharper shadows, while a cloudy day will give you softer, less-obvious shading. Also, take into account your type of light-source: a candle will tint your light with a gentle golden tone, while moonlight or old-style florescents blue and silver things down. The direction is important, too- especially when you're trying to get a more 3D look to your piece. Our faces aren't flat- noses and cheeks, even eye-lashes, will cast shadows when the light is behind them.
Proportions: Are pretty good- the eyes do look a tad odd, like someone else mentioned. Where they are is fine, just make the left one a tiny bit smaller- it wouldn't appear quite that different from the right in size, even due to perspective, but you have the right idea here. Her jaw and cheek on the left side seem "out" to me. Maybe move the bulge of her cheek toward the centre a bit to make it stick out less? As it is now, it makes her jaw look distorted, like it 's turned to her right in the image. If she were facing you head-on, for example, that cute little chin would be off-centre. The right ear would probably be a tiny fraction more to the right and down a touch- it's too close to centre right now. These are small fractions of movements, but it's always surprising how much a tiny increment can make or break an image.
Folds, fur and fun: You have the right idea for the folds in the fabric. But you have too many of them. Look at your own t-shirt- yes, it folds in the same places you have on hers- in your piece, just make fewer of 'em, make 'em a little broader and soften 'em. Sharp, hard folds like this make it look like she's wearing plastic or cellophane. I like the colours you've used on her eyes, the way you've shaded them is quite pretty and gives a more "alive" look to your kitty- I'd only suggest a "purer" tone- the ones you have are slightly gray. Right now, her fur is kind of "flat", but that could work, depending on the style you're using, and, since I'm not all that good with fur, I'll leave it at that. Fur and clouds are my personal artistic bane. *chuckles* Hair is dynamic- that means it moves, curls or hangs straight, but still bends to conform to whatever it's resting against. I'd suggest lighter, thinner lines when you colour, and lay them tightly next to each other in smooth waves and blur them slightly to give the effect of a fall of hair. Use the dodge tool to make highlights and then add in your line-art.
Line-art; too heavy or not heavy enough- I have this problem, too, and it drives me right round the twist. I'm still working this one out myself. I go in using the zoom tool to about %200 or even %300 expansion, then use the eraser tool to nip out the little bits that stick out from my lines to smooth them out a bit. I'll also use the blur tool to either soften them slightly (set to %20 or less, use several passes until you're satisfied), or darken the lines (which males them a bit thicker, as well as darker) on the unlighted sides of your character to give them "weight" and to suggest 3D shaping. Another technique I like to use is to lower the opacity over all of my line-art, so it becomes a soft enhancement to the colours underneath. This only works if you have the line-art on a layer of it's own.
And, lastly- LAYERS, LAYERS, LAYERS! *grins* And label each one so you don't get lost- nothing fancy, either, just "background", "colours", "sketch", "line-art" and "effects" work for me. Some artists put each separate element on it's own layer, too, and can have up to ten or more layers going at once.
These are all small changes, but they can have big effects on how your art is seen by people. So I hope you know that I not only like your art, but I'd love to see you happy with it. You're not a bad artist- you have something going, there, and you have an inner vision you want to show to people. We all need to improve in places, and when we don't have a lot of time to spare to practice, that progress can be slow- but we still progress, as long as we don't listen to the Little Bastard in the back of our brains who keeps telling us we suck- he's a liar, and only wants to make you miserable- ignore him. *hugs*
All that stuff said, this little kitty is adorable, and I hope you'll keep drawing her. If no one comments or offers useful critiques on a piece, please don't let that discourage you, OK? You're probably giving yourself more grief than you need, and if you don't pump out a drawing every day, so what? Real life takes precedence, after all. I suggest drawing from life- have someone pose for you, or draw an animal sitting in your yard. Use photographs, if you need your subject to sit still longer. >^__^< Most artists will tell you- even the ones we probably both "worship"- that they use references: photographs or film -even a well-done statue- some static image to get a good close eye on something like fur to see how they can paint it with light. That's what you're doing, you know- painting with light, and how cool it THAT?
I hope any of this useful to you!
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